Hydrogen offers a clean source of energy – provided the energy that goes into producing hydrogen (splitting water molecules) is green. In that sense, hydrogen is a form of stored energy.
But research at the University of Strathclyde used a particulate conjugated polymer containing a metal catalyst (such as iridium) to split water with sunlight.
Since iridium is a rare material, research will focus now on replacing these rare metal catalysts to allow for scale-up of materials to tackle hydrogen production at scale efficiently.
Photocatalytic Overall Water Splitting Under Visible Light Enabled by a Particulate Conjugated Polymer Loaded with Palladium and Iridium, Angewandte Chemie, 2022-04
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